20
To Richard West
[1736
George Montagu is gone yet or not; I conclude he is by
not hearing from him.
Adieu,
Dr Charles,
Yrs in haste, K. Coll., July 27, 1736. H. WALPOLE.
12. To RJCHAKD WEST.
DEAR WEST, August 17, 1736.
Gray is at Burnham1, and, what is surprising, has not been at Eton. Could you live so near it without seeing it ? That dear scene of our quadruple alliance2 would furnish me with the most agreeable recollections. Tis the head of our genealogical table, that is since sprouted out into the two branches of Oxford and Cambridge. You seem to be the eldest son, by having got a whole inheritance to yourself; while the manor of Granta is to be divided between your three younger brothers, Thomas of Lancashire3, Thomas of London4, and Horace. We don't wish you dead to enjoy your seat, but your seat dead to enjoy you. I hope you are a mere elder brother, and live upon what your father left you, and in the way you were brought up in, poetry: but we are supposed to betake ourselves to some trade, as logic, philosophy, or mathematics. If I should prove a mere younger brother, and not turn to any profession, would you receive me, and supply me out of your stock, where you have such plenty ? I have been so used to the delicate food of Parnassus, that I can never condescend to apply to the grosser studies of Alma Mater. Sober cloth of syllogism
LKTTEB 12. —1 In Buckinghamshire, where his mother's brother-in-law, Jonathan Bogers, lived.
2 See letter to West, Nov. 9, 1735.
3 Thomas Ashton, -whose father was usher of Lancaster Grammar School.
* Thomas Gray.